MMA Junkie reports that UFC Tonight on Fuel TV drew an average of 61,000 viewers on Tuesday night. It triples the viewership of the show from last week.
UFC Tonight, the UFC’s news magazine show, debuted January 3rd with a 39,000 viewer average. Last week’s edition scored a low of 20,000 viewers.
Via MMA Junkie:
In 2011, FUEL TV was cable’s lowest-rated channel. However, thanks largely to the UFC’s new partnership with the channel, which airs live fights and an array of other UFC programming, FUEL TV has expanded from a meager 30 million U.S. homes to approximately 36 million in just a matter of months. (By comparison, the UFC’s former longtime home, Spike TV, is available in approximately 100 million.)
While the growth process has proved problematic for some hardcore UFC fans who don’t have FUEL TV in their programming lineup, the cable channel has seen an immediate impact in its viewership. According to FUEL TV officials, the channel has seen a 56 percent gain in total viewers over the first two weeks of 2011 and a 75 percent increase in viewers in the coveted male 18-49 demographic.
Payout Perspective:
The spike (no pun intended) in ratings is a good sign that fans are finding the show. As we’ve indicated here before, there will be some growing pains with the new Fox platforms as fans get used to the new channel. It will be interesting to see if the ratings continue to rise, remain steady, or fluctuate depending on the events and subjects covered by the show.
Fox should be happy with the growth, but for the UFC that viewership number is still very low. Let’s see if it picks up momentum or if it peaks. They have a long way to go.
I would really like more info on the increase in the availability of FUEL. What service provider(s) picked up FUEL to account for the extra 6 million homes, and what was the reason? Was it pressure from customers, or a different reason altogether? Definitely some missing information there.